When installed in a supported Linux virtual machine running on Hyper-V, the Linux Integration Services provide:

•Driver support: Linux Integration Services supports the network controller and the IDE and SCSI storage controllers that were developed specifically for Hyper-V.

•Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices now take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.

•Time Keeping: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain accurate by synchronizing to the clock on the virtualization server via Timesync service, and with the help of the pluggable time source device.

•Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager by using the “Shut down” command.

•Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use multiple virtual processors per virtual machine. The actual number of virtual processors that can be allocated to a virtual machine is only limited by the underlying hypervisor.

•Heartbeat: This feature allows the virtualization server to detect whether the virtual machine is running and responsive.

•KVP (Key Value Pair) Exchange: Information about the running Linux virtual machine can be obtained by using the Key Value Pair exchange functionality on the Windows Server 2008 virtualization server.

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Hyper-V supports both emulated (“legacy”) and Hyper-V-specific (“synthetic”) devices for Linux virtual machines. When a Linux virtual machine is running with emulated devices, no additional software is required to be installed. However, emulated devices do not provide high performance and cannot leverage the rich virtual machine management infrastructure that the Hyper-V technology offers. To make full use of all benefits that Hyper-V provides, it is best to use Hyper-Vspecific devices for Linux. The collection of drivers that are required to run Hyper-V-specific devices is known as Linux Integration Services (LIS).
For certain older Linux distributions, Microsoft provides an ISO file containing installable LIS drivers for Linux virtual machines. For newer Linux distributions, LIS is built into the Linux operating system, and no separate download or installation is required. This guide discusses the installation and functionality of LIS drivers on older Linux distributions.

When installed on a virtual machine that is running a supported Linux distribution, LIS 3.5 for Hyper-V provides the functionality listed in the table below. For comparative purposes, hereunder also list the features available in LIS 3.4. This allows users to decide if they want to upgrade from LIS 3.4 to LIS 3.5.

Notes
1. Static IP injection might not work if Network Manager has been configured for a given HyperV-specific network adapter on the virtual machine. To ensure smooth functioning of static IP injection, ensure that either Network Manager is turned off completely, or has been turned off for a specific network adapter through its Ifcfg-ethX file.

2. When you use Virtual Fibre Channel devices, ensure that logical unit number 0 (LUN 0) has been populated. If LUN 0 has not been populated, a Linux virtual machine might not be able to mount Virtual Fibre Channel devices natively.

3. If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, the backed-up virtual hard disks (VHDs) might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) when restored.

4. Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSC SI device or a physical disk that is directly attached to a virtual machine (“pass-through disk”).

5. LIS 3.5 only provides Dynamic Memory ballooning support—it does not provide hot-add support. In such a scenario, the Dynamic Memory feature can be used by setting the Startup memory parameter to a value which is equal to the Maximum memory parameter. This results in all the requisite memory being allocated to the virtual machine at boot time—and then later, depending upon the memory requirements of the host, Hyper-V can freely reclaim any memory from the guest. Also, ensure that Startup Memory and Minimum Memory are not configured below distribution recommended values.

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Microsoft just release new KB regarding support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection support for Windows Azure Virtual Machines.

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later versions and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection SP1 or later versions support two specific scenarios to manage server software in the Windows Azure Virtual Machine environment. The following table lists the scenarios and supported Configuration Manager features in each scenario.

Supported scenarios

Supported Configuration Manager features

Use an existing on-premises Configuration Manager infrastructure to manage Windows Azure Virtual Machines that are running Windows Server or Linux through a secure site-to-Site connection.

For Windows Server:

Application Management

Compliance Settings

Endpoint Protection

Inventory – Software, Hardware, and Asset Intelligence

Network Access Protection

Software Updates Deployment

Software Metering

Remote Control

Reporting

For Linux:

Software Distribution

Endpoint Protection

Inventory – Hardware, Software

Reporting

Set up a single stand-alone Primary site in the Windows Azure Virtual Machines environment to manage Windows Azure Virtual Machines that are running Windows Server or Linux in the same virtual network. Note The all-in-one, stand-alone Primary site is a single Windows Azure Virtual Machine that runs all required site system roles and Microsoft SQL Server locally without using any remote site systems or roles.

For Windows Server:

Application Management

Compliance Settings

Endpoint Protection

Inventory – Software, Hardware, and Asset Intelligence

Software Updates Deployment

Software Metering

Remote Control

Reporting

For Linux:

Software Distribution

Endpoint Protection

Inventory – Hardware, Software

Reporting

The following Linux distributions are endorsed for Windows Azure Virtual Machines in the supported scenarios:

Canonical Ubuntu 12.04

OpenLogic CentOS 6.3

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

Note The Linux-based virtual machines must be running version 1.0.0.4648 or later versions of the Linux client for Configuration Manager.

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The System Center Configuration Manager Company Portal app allows users of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 machines to view and install applications made available to the user by their administrators. The machine must be managed by Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, or later, with the agent installed. The app communicates directly with the Configuration Manager on-premise server infrastructure. Note that this contrasts with the Windows Intune Company Portal app (available through the Windows Store and the Download Center) which communicates directly with the Windows Intune service.

To enable Company Portal app functionality a registry key must be present on target devices. This allows the Configuration Manager agent to communicate with the Company Portal app. The required value is:

Deploy the registry value specified above to all clients on which the Company Portal app will be installed. This can be done via Group Policy, the Compliance Settings feature of Configuration Manager, or any other method applicable in your organization.

If you have multiple primary sites in a hierarchy, we strongly recommend adding a set of Application Catalog roles for each of the primary sites, and using Automatic detection to control the default Application Catalog Website Points.

When the user browses the list of applications in the Company Portal, the app will display the applications that have been made available to the user, similar to the Configuration Manager Application Catalog functionality. The Company Portal will assess the operating system requirements specified for the deployment type of the application to determine if the application should be available for installation.

About Zeros & Ones

Hi, I’m Mohamed Fawzi and I am working as Senior Infrastructure System Engineer for LINK development company. This blog covers Virtualization technology and Cloud Computing.
*All the usual disclaimers are applied :)
The information in this weblog is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. This weblog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer. It is solely my opinion.